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Skitter (Worm)
. Skitter (real name: Taylor Hebert) is the main character in the online web serial Worm, written by Wildbow. Like many other characters in the serial, Skitter is a "cape", a person with a super-power, which in her case is the ability to control animals with simple brain structures. This can include a wide vareity of invertebrates but appears most commonly as control over insects and spiders. Skitter has the ability to control the movements of these creatures; she may completely take over an individual insect, or direct a large swarm of them with surprising precision. She can also access the senses of the creatuers under her control, frequently using insects to track and spy on others. Her power is limited by range rather than capacity and seemingly has no maximum number of creatures which can be commanded. A teenager and aspiring hero, Skitter develops into an anti-villain over the course of much of the serial. Sometimes portrayed as a major antagonist from other characters' points of view, Skitter is a villain who attempts to do the right thing via extra-legal means. History Skitter begins the story in a relatively normal way, as a high school student. It is implied that she is a good student, but a vicious bullying campaign has completely disrupted her schooling. The school system and her teachers have been unhelpful stopping the bullying, leading Taylor to develop a distrust of organized systems and authority. She and her father, Danny, are relatively close, but are still recovering from the recent death of her mother in a car collision. After a particularly foul bullying incident, Taylor develops her power, as the majority of "capes" in Worm develop powers after a traumatic incident. Telling nobody, Taylor spends the next few months learning the details of her power, making her own costume, and training for action. After around six months she heads out on her own, intending to become a super-hero while simultaneously using her heroics as a way to escape her terrible school experiecnes. However, her first escapade does not go as planned. After attacking the gang of a local super-villain, Lung, she meets several other capes. The first is Armsmaster, a leading member of the Protectorate, a formally-recognized organization of adult capes who act as super-heroes. After saving Taylor from Lung, Armsmaster haughtily takes all credit for Lung's defeat and recommends that Taylor join the Wards, a superhero organization for minors. After Armsmaster departs, Taylor meets the Undersiders, a group of villainous teenage delinquents composed of four capes. Grue (Brian), a confident, practical, and athletic boy, seems to be an unofficial leader in the group, alongside Tattletale (Lisa), a friendly girl with a knowing grin. The two have the powers of "darkness generation" (creating a mist of utter sensory deprivation) and "information extrapolation" (the ability to accurately deduce a great deal of information from relatively small details) respectively. The Undersiders also include Regent (Alec), a boy with the power to control movements in others for a short period of time, and Hellhound/Bitch (Rachel), a socially-stunted and aggressive girl with a preternatural ability to train and understand dogs and to temporarily mutate them into large monstrosities. Thinking Taylor saved them from Lung and his gang, the Undersiders attempt to recruit Taylor. After some thought, she accepts, intending to learn more about the Undersiders and betray them to Armsmaster in order to become a superhero. However, she soon learns of a hidden "boss" who is directing and bankrolling the Undersiders. Taylor thus begins her villainous career, doing several jobs with the Undersiders in order to identify their "boss" and turn him in, earning the name "Skitter" in the process. However, in so doing, Skitter becomes formally recognized as a villain and criminal. Not only will this result in a prison sentence if caught, but Taylor loses favor with Armsmaster, who proves unwilling to help a villain. Now "stuck" as a villain, Taylor is forced to try to continue doing what she sees as right, fnding friendship with the Undersiders and several other capes along the way. She soon becomes the conscience and eventual leader of the Undersiders as several major events rock the city in quick succession. She becomes a rival of Armsmaster and several other superheroes, such as the techno-wizard Dragon, the Superman-esque Alexandria, and the humorously-named but powerful Clockblocker. Multiple villainous groups, such as Empire Eighty-Eight (a Neo-Nazi gang), the Merchants (a gang of hard drug addicts and pushers) and the Slaughterhouse Nine (a roving group of cape serial killers) also target Skitter and the Undersiders, often because of the good they are doing. All the while, Skitter hopes to be a true "hero" by doing what is right, whether or not the law and the "heroes" agrees with her. Personality Skitter starts the story very shy and awkward. The constant bullying has prevented her from developing friendships and she dresses in dark, baggy clothing to avoid attention as best she can. She also appears to struggle with her own femininity, as she does not appear traditionally beautiful (save for her hair) and the bullies prevent her from acting as many high school girls do. However, she is also fiercely intelligent, resourceful, and persistent. Her school experiences have also made her rather secretive and sneaky, both of which work to her advantage in much of the serial. Finally, she has a tendency to jump headlong into projects without considering the cost to herself, a trait which drives much of the story. Over the course of the story, as she become more established as a cape, Skitter becomes more and more confident and open. She becomes a respected individual and leader and is able to effectively achieve her goals despite facing superior numbers, slim odds, and powers far stronger than her own. However, the things Skitter sees and is forced to do will begin to change her. She becomes more pragmatic and desensitized to violence over the course of the story and becomes known as someone who is prone to sudden bouts of extreme violence. Skitter also becomes more and more regretful; though she acknowledges that she felt she made the right decisions, she is burdened by the moral compromises she has to make to achieve them. Frequent betrayals and complex politics among capes further taint her reputation and trust of others. A running theme is Skitter's distrust of authority and law. Skitter understands the function of law but sees it as too restrictive. She frequently feels vindicated when she is able to do something good due to her villain status and ability to operate outside the law, whereas the "heroes" were restricted by law or legally unable to intervene. While Skitter often strives to uphold order, the vast majority of her encounters with the law and organized authority are deeply negative. Skitter is ultimately a tragic character, and the cost to her well-intended villainy is high. However, her villainy ultimately achieves good far beyond what heroism might have accomplished in similar straits. Infrequently, Skitter gets to see the true good she has done in powerfully-written and unforgettable scenes which, though they do not completely reassure her, confirm that through villainy, she is doing good. Category:Female Category:Internet Villains Category:Supervillains Category:Anti-Villain Category:Protagonists Category:Vigilante Category:Tragic Category:Evil Vs. Evil Category:In Love